Oliveira: "I want to be at the front, on the podium and winning races"

The Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 rider was present at the Team Repsol presentation in Madrid on Saturday ahead of his debut in the new Moto3™ category.

Miguel Oliveira shared the scene last Saturday with a select group of individuals who will defend the Repsol colors this season, including three World Championship winners: Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa and Marc Márquez. In an interview with motogp.com, the young Portuguese rider shared with his expectations for the inaugural Moto3™ season that he will face at the controls of a Honda.

After a positive initial test at the Valencia circuit, and a second more recently at Jerez, Oliveira is keen to begin the 2012 season aboard a four stroke machine.

"I am excited and can’t wait to start the championship" said the 17 year old rider. "The last two tests went quite well, we found several possible solutions to some problems we had and now we’ll try to see if they are the right ones. To represent this team means a lot to me and I’ll do my best to improve and be up at the front."

"As it’s a new category, it’s still an unknown for everyone, we don’t know much what to expect." The Portuguese rider went on to explain his goals for the 2012 season: "The KTM has shown to be a strong bike, but we won’t give up, we're all working hard. My goals are to be in the front group and, if possible, make podiums and win races,” declared Oliveira, who in 2011 stood at the gates of such achievements in his debut campaign with the Andalucía-Banca Cívica team.

Speaking about his new four-stroke Honda, on which he was regularly among the fastest during the three days of testing held at Jerez two weeks ago, the young rider offered his evaluation. "The bike isn’t very heavy compared to the two-stroke, but it has a lot of possibilities for improvement-it’s a very competitive bike.”